Archive Website of the UK government

Steps to take to tackle your emissions

Before choosing to offset, think about taking action to tackle your emissions in the following order:

1. Calculate

Calculate how much carbon dioxide you produce at home and through the transport you use (this is your 'carbon footprint').

• Calculate your carbon footprint Opens new window

2. Avoid

Once you know the size of your carbon footprint, you can start to act. You can avoid many emissions, for example by walking instead of driving, or turning off the TV or computer when it is not in use.

3. Reduce

You can then take action to reduce your remaining emissions. Examples are using public transport instead of driving, using low-energy light bulbs or turning down your thermostat at home.

4. Offset

Many emissions cannot currently be avoided or reduced. You could consider offsetting some or all of these remaining emissions.

• Carbon offsetting information: Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) Opens new window

How does offsetting work?

First you need to calculate the emissions you produce. You can do this using the ‘Calculate your carbon footprint’ link above.

You can then choose to offset some or all of your unavoidable emissions. For example, you could offset your car mileage for a year or a flight abroad.

Next, you buy an equivalent amount of ‘carbon credits’ from projects that have saved carbon dioxide. These projects rely on your offsetting money to fund them.

Choosing an offset

Look for offset providers that:

• calculate your emissions accurately
• deliver credits within a year of you buying them
• declare clearly how much the credits cost per tonne
• provide information about the role of offsetting in tackling climate change, and advice on reducing your carbon footprint

Where does the money go?

There are many different types of offsetting projects, generally involving energy efficiency or renewable energy. Here are some examples of the kind of projects that could produce a credit used for offsetting:

• providing people in Aceh, Indonesia with solar cookers and heat retention containers for cooking, heating, sterilising water and preserving food
• introducing energy efficiency measures at a resort hotel in India
• harnessing river hydropower in Fiji
• establishing the first wind energy plant in Cyprus
• collecting methane to generate electricity from landfill sites in Durban, South Africa
• generating electricity from the residue produced by a sugar mill in Ecuador

Some offsetting schemes involve planting trees, but it can take many years for the environmental benefits to be realised. It's also difficult to measure how much carbon dioxide is actually saved. For this reason, very few such projects have currently been approved by the United Nations. It's not expected that offsets from such projects will carry the quality mark.

More useful links

• View the 'My CO2' film